2021

Here, we characterize a culture system for obtaining haploid primordial germ cell-like cells (PGCLCs) from haploid mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs). We find that haploid cells show predisposition for PGCLCs over somatic cells. Moreover, a single X chromosome in haploid cells leads to activation of Xist, and mutation of Xist is insufficient to prevent diploidization of haESCs.

Yan et al. show that Nedd4-1-deficient keratinocytes failed to efficiently activate the Erk1/2 mitogen-activated kinases and the YAP transcriptional co-activator, resulting in severely delayed wound healing in keratinocyte-specific Nedd4-1 knockout mice.

Authors show that mice lacking fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 (Fgfr3) in hepatocytes exhibit increased toxin-induced necrosis and excessive fibrosis after long-term injury. This partially resulted from altered expression of metabolic and pro-fibrotic genes. These results and in vivo expression data identify a paracrine Fgf9-Fgfr3 signaling pathway that protects from toxin-induced cell death and liver fibrosis, suggesting potential use of FGFR3 ligands for therapeutic purposes.

On Wednesday, October 27th, 2021, the double inaugural lecture of Prof. Helmuth Gehart (Institute of Molecular Health Sciences) and Prof. Gabriel Neurohr (Institute of Biochemistry) will take place, starting at 17:15 in the Audimax HG F30 at ETH Center.

Rauschendorfer et al. generated a light-activated FGF receptor variant and expressed it in cultured keratinocytes and in the skin of transgenic mice.The optogenetic approach was highly suitable to study the early steps of FGF receptor signaling, while long-term studies were not possible because of rapid receptor down-regulation. These results highlight the complex consequences of transferring optogenetic cell signaling tools into their relevant cellular contexts.